100 True Fans
In 2008, Kevin Kelly wrote an essay called 1,000 True Fans.
His premise was that to succeed as an entrepreneur, artist, inventor, or something similar, you don’t need millions and millions of followers. You only need 1,000 true fans.
Here’s how he defines a “true fan”:
A true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce. These diehard fans will drive 200 miles to see you sing; they will buy the hardback and paperback and audible versions of your book; they will purchase your next figurine sight unseen; they will pay for the “best-of” DVD version of your free youtube channel; they will come to your chef’s table once a month. If you have roughly a thousand of true fans like this (also known as super fans), you can make a living — if you are content to make a living but not a fortune.
I’ve often shared a premise that agencies need to expand their network and focus on selling into that network rather than hunting cold relationships for new business.
When I share that concept, I often pair it with two directives for agencies: expand your network and identify how to communicate with them effectively.
Often, likely because of how I’ve framed this up, there’s a misunderstanding that the size of your network is the biggest indicator of sales success. But in reality, expanding your network is secondary to effective communication. Effective communication is how you uncover your true fans - and how you create quality relationships with them.
Kelly’s 1,000 true fans concept places a qualifier on your truly sellable network. And probably introduces a better way to talk about this idea of network growth. It’s not enough to grow your network, and certainly not enough just to see your LinkedIn follower count go up.
You have to develop real relationships through diligent and persistent communication and actually caring. For many agencies, 100 true fans is a reasonable number that would generate neverending pipeline. These are the leaders who hire you when they get a new job, ask your advice about what they should do with their career, and tout your process and perspective to their internal peers. These are the folks you should be texting monthly, sending holiday cards to, and checking in just because you know them as people.
An agency recently shared this quote with me from a Fortune 50 client, “I won’t do another project without your team. Your process and people make all the difference.”
You know when she goes to another big-time role at another company, the agency is coming along. That’s a true fan.
So yes, please expand your network. But communicate with them in an effort to uncover and develop the true fans. Despite what your capabilities list suggest, “demand generation” isn’t really a thing. But you can develop relationships with real people who will want your expertise when the going gets tough.
If you don’t read the full essay, just read the below. As a small or medium size agency leader, the near definition of our industry is to seek the long-tail opportunities, and doing the seeking is your role in the business.
If you lived in any of the 2 million small towns on Earth you might be the only one in your town to crave death metal music, or get turned on by whispering, or want a left-handed fishing reel. Before the web you’d never be able to satisfy that desire. You’d be alone in your fascination. But now satisfaction is only one click away…
Now here’s the thing; the big corporations, the intermediates, the commercial producers, are all under-equipped and ill suited to connect with these thousand true fans. They are institutionally unable to find and deliver niche audiences and consumers. That means the long tail is wide open to you, the creator. You’ll have your one-in-a-million true fans to yourself. And the tools for connecting keep getting better, including the recent innovations in social media. It has never been easier to gather 1,000 true fans around a creator, and never easier to keep them near…
The truth is that cultivating a thousand true fans is time consuming, sometimes nerve racking, and not for everyone. Done well (and why not do it well?) it can become another full-time job. At best it will be a consuming and challenging part-time task that requires ongoing skills. There are many creators who don’t want to deal with fans, and honestly should not. They should just paint, or sew, or make music, and hire someone else to deal with their superfans. If that is you and you add someone to deal with fans, a helper will skew your formula, increasing the number of fans you need, but that might be the best mix. If you go that far, then why not “subcontract” out dealing with fans to the middle people — the labels and studios and publishers and retailers? If they work for you, fine, but remember, in most cases they would be even worse at this than you would.
